Joerg

And I botched up the timeline for the temples of the Reaching Storm, the first of these being raised already shortly after 1634 when Inkarne's mom spoke the words of the wedding vow for her infant daughter. (Where infant may mean anything from freshly born to eight years old?) The threat to Saird of nomads from the north and the east indicates that the Empire has full scale Pentan troubles in these years, probably courtesy of Dranz Goloi. North of Saird lie Sylila (which is actually part of Saird) and Kostaddi, with Henjarl around Alkoth. East of Saird lies Zarkos - specifically Garsting, which had already been the home range of the Opili nation before and after the Battle of Quintus Vale.

Oh, come on. During the Exile Orlanth imposed on himself, he repeatedly visited the Storm Village and his queen in the cunning disguise of Niskis the Lover and made it rain out of a clear sky whenever he visited. And nobody recognized him! Of course when he became she, nobody would recognize him.That's pretty much like the buxom BBC female actor in a Shakespeare comedy posing as her own brother, and nobody notices! (To be fair, in the Globe, it would have been a strapping young lad in drag playing that girl posing as a boy, possibly forced to put on drag to trick another character... this required quite a bit of immersion.) Whenever Orlanth manifested a new persona as one of the Storm Brothers, he had to undergo all that nuisance to prove he was worthy of getting a seat on their table in the feasting hall. The trouble she had as Vinga was that she only came in second best at any single contest provided... and she was a girl. Icky. This is about myth. Among other things, myths are supposed to bring a certain amount of silliness, like that swan becoming sexually attractive to Leda, and the myriad of depictions thereof. Talking of a dangerous duck-like bird...

All those bribes and favours gone for naught. Instead of a peaceful retirement amidst fearsome nomads, uncivilized natives and chaos monsters the poor man is doomed to spend the rest of his life in house arrest in the family palace and gardens. The hardship!

It doesn't even have to be modeled on Kickstarter. Baen Books has a policy of selling selected books electronically as Advanced Reader Copies (E-ARCs), taking a premium payment (when compared to regular E-Book price once the book has been released in the final edited edition). The very limited print run of the unformatted, unillustrated GaGoG is similar, but on dead aldryami, and reaching a lot less people.

There are a few myths about the ascendance of Kargzant in GRoY - his celestial battle with Shargash, from which he emerged victorious and strengthened about two centuries before the Dawn (leading to the Jenarong emperorship), and of his bridling by the storm barbarian wielding the iron sword at the end of the first century (after the Hyaloring rule over Dara Happa), from which Child of Evil/Huradabba emerged as son of Vettebbe. While these things occurred in the first century of the Dawn Age, Vuranostum's victory over Argoom the Shadow Rider feels like something for an initiatory tale, too, and may have been a reprise of something Yamsur may have done in the Golden Age or Storm Age. Mixing Hyalor and Gamara into a single myth is part of the syncretic horse culture of modern Pent. This may have developed in the united front of Hyalorings and Jenarongs against Vettebbe and Huradabba. (I still have to play Six Ages:Ride like the Storm (and this weekend doesn't look like I'll find the time to start), but from what I have seen second-hand so far, the skill of riding the horse was brought to the Nivorah folk before they abandoned their city, from the east, by the son of Yamsur. I have no idea about the goal of the Six Ages game yet, and neither any idea whether the agriculturalist/pastoralist mix is going to merge into the Berennethtelli and/or Orgovaltes tribes of the Vingkotlings or whether the next (or third) chapter/Age will cover the horse warlord period in Dara Happa or the Second Council struggles in Saird.) The Starlight Wanderers in Jenarong's ancestry adopted Zarkosite goat herding or goat herders, or possibly Zarkosites adopted stray Nivorah refugees and their horses and migrated through the Greater Darkness. For a while, even Kargzant was away, but some remaining stars lit the way. With the re-appearance of Kargzant and Shargash, civilization restarted in the Gray Age, and the various horse warlords along the Oslir and Oronin (and in between) experienced the Dawn with a head start similar to that of the Seshnegi, Akemites, Ralians and Theyalans. Some were riders, some were charioteers, some were cattle folk, but all appear to have been blessed by the sun horse. Pentan culture started with the expulsion from Peloria after the battle of Argentium Thri'ile. The fleeing horse people have lost the majority of their men-folk and elders, and the remaining ones get to build their religion with the myth that they can collect. Whatever head start they had as overlords over the city folks has been lost. Some of their lore now rests in Dara Happan or Pelandan temples and may be re-discovered over the next generations. Some may be carried against them and regained in defeat. One old (RQ2 era) Yelmic myth suitabe for initiation is his ascension over three enemies - Basko the Black Sun, Molandro the Earth Tyrant, and Jokbazi the Predark demon of annihilation. GRoY doesn't mention anything about this at all. Overcoming Shargash is part of this. Plentonius reports the Bridling of Kargzant and the resultig rule of Last Evil, but I wonder how the horse warlords dealt with that episode in their story-telling. The loss at Argentium Thri'ile is the final tale of woe that sends them into unknown lands to form a new, vibrant culture. King of Sartar gives some insight into the Grazelanders, a pure horse variation of the Pentans. At least older sources have made Hippoi and Gamara different (and even hostile) creatures to one another, but something very bad happened to Yamsur and his followers, and only a handful of them escaped his annihilation at Earthfall and survived among the descendants from Nivorah. The Grazer chief Varnatol the Durtarl, for whom the author of Composite History of Dragon Pass collects the document as a gift to be given to Argrath prides himself in his role in the fight against the Fake Sun warriors. The Grazers also have a hatred for the False Sunhorses - given the timing of their appearance, those seem to be the Char-un units of the Cavalry Corps.

Gorgorma appears in the Wedding Contest, as do Oria and Dendara (duh, she won it), but there are others, too. Galgarenge is a celestial candidate, as is UlEria. But IMO all of them have in common the property "Fuel" rather than "Flame" in that Dara Happan dichotomy. Unlike his sire Aether, Yelm requires Fuel to procreate, or perhaps like his sire Aether ever after the conception and birth of Umath. Which coincidentally or probably marks the birth of Entekos (as an element, and likely as a celestial body, too.) Dara Happan sovereignty appears to emerge from the orbs above their towers, creating a tesselation of the land where the borders overlap. The Silver Shadow satrapy is defined that way, too, overruling (and possibly overshadowing) the weaker urban orbs of the Tripolis. D rune? The majority of Dara Happan women are Lodrili women. Weeders and (greater) Suvarians may indeed be inclined to worship water as much as earth, but then the Empire has fought the river deities or cults in the past as a retaliation for a rebellion or three. With moon being an unisex religion... I see this as a "Let me be Fuel to thy Flame" approach, but yes - their initiation might be accompanied by a levitation experience. Don't forget Deezola! As a female ruler, that course might deter future husbands, though. (Which may be a bonus feature for young women making that choice... I don't think so. The Seven Moms have been assigned phases in the past, as have the Imperial Colleges, but neither Glamour, Hwarin, Hon-eel or Jar-eel have been limited that way. Nor has Etyries, despite being subject to the cycles. Esvenratha of the many husbands? Ernalda does appear preferable to Molanni (the other possible identification of Entekos, and a known wife of the Sun Emperor). The Theyalans appear to be blissfully unaware of Dendara - they (or the God Learners using Theyalan star lore as their source) name that planetary body "Moskalf", without giving much of a myth, if any. Praxian star lore had the cold sun as a female spirit/deity. (The prohibition against dressing in women's clothing might be addressing a suppression of this older cult in Praxian Sun Dome County.) At the same time, the concept isn't consequential, as by a naive application of that principle the Praxians are Storm people, too, by virtue of their Storm Bull ancestry. Hardly anybody seems to think so about the Praxians in general, although the Bison tribe with its tribal Storm affinity fits that bill very well. Justice and rebellion are main plots in Orlanth's myths, too, but the results are drastically different. Orlanth's descent from his throne is mere (self-imposed) exile. Orlanthi history is full of Traditionalists (Stasis!) maintaining the Orlanthi way against the new (Change!) ways of the insight of the Age (be it the God Project and Illumination of the Second Council, the EWF mysticism or Meldek meddling in Orlanthland, or acceptance of the Goddess in Sylila and Saird or of Belintar in the south). There is precedence to that in the Godtime myths of Orlanth. Maybe tied to the Urain stories about the evils of Orlanth's kingship.

I think that Rugbagian of Pavis (at least that's who I think the "carpet bagger" refers to) would have started the initial development when Raus' first batch of settlers arrived. The 1621 population numbers of 5K rural (plus the 1K of Ronegarth) cannot be just Raus' settlers plus Oasis Folk. Other grants were smaller, and required less preparation. I think the latter. Doing some groundwork for other grants may have been part of his pardon. Pavis:GtA has a fisherman named Korzen Lokazzi as a river captain, and mentions the hamlet of Lokazzi as an overnight stop on the way from Pavis to Corflu. This sounds like Lokazzi is an established River-folk village on the lower Zola Fel. That's another Pavisite potentate under Sor-eel to make use of a grant, if my hunch about Rugbagian is correct. So, who is the popular but political suspect Dara Happan general of the Lunar Army in Heortland? The ill-fated Jorkandros Blinder?

Good point, I never considered the mountains, but only Argrath's mystical counter to the Glowline. It might just counter enemy mystical powers, be they Red Moon or Zolathy-powered. The enemy at the time was Sheng, and summoning Yara Aranis to fight Sheng sounds like what Argrath would do after he had already summoned Sheng to fight the Red Emperor (Phargentes II). Neither had mortals to remember them - it is possible that there were some niiads who used to swim on the top side of the Earth Cube, but that's the closest thing to a mortal being that there was this far down Creation. Not even dragonewts yet. Likely no man rune yet, either. Both would come in the Green Age. This basically means that there is an extremely low likelihood for there being myths to experience those stages of Creation. Heler might have some for his most devoted mystics, and Daliath's Well of Wisdom might hold the knowledge. Vendref: Yes, my interpretation, too. Prior to the intervention of the FHQ, their lot may have been a lot sorrier, with the danger of being picked for chattel service or sport at a whim. But even so, the Vendref appear to have slipped into a role similar to that of the Oasis Folk the Pure Horse Tribe had in that position during their heydays in western and northern Prax. To be fair, the Over The Top RQ cults of Humakt and Yelmalio came up with restrictions like "only use cult weapons" geases, and Humakt enumerates knives as such, whereas the Yelmalio cult only mentions spears and bows. Speaking of swords and symbolism: Are there any Bronze Age swords that have a crossbar like the Death Rune has? True, the Unbreakable Sword was an iron sword, but even Iron Age swords didn't usually have crossbars for quite a while. The Only Old One as King of Dragon Pass IMO the Kingdom of Night's authority over Orlanthland was never one of sovereignty over the land - the only human place where the Kingdom had made such a move was Esrolia (or rather Nochet). At the Dawn, there was no King of Dragon Pass, but Aram ya Udram was the next best thing as holder of Kero Fin's Necklace, and human representant at the Unity Council. That was the time when the OOO held the most influence over Orlanthland. The Bright Empire changed that, but as far as I know Palangio never became King of Dragon Pass, being happy to be governor supreme. After the Gbaji Wars, the Arkati and Kitori upheld the tributes to the Kingdom of Night, but Orlanthi inability to hold Dara Happa to compensate for those tribubtes led to crisis and the Tax Slaughter, which ended the influence of the OOO pretty much at the Crossline. The Hendriki chose the OOO over the EWF or the Slontans, and the Esrolians remained as true to him as they could under both EWF and Slontan occupations. Dragon Pass was its own territory, and the Ring of Orlanthland didn't approve of any supreme kings. Neither did theThird Council of the EWF that this institution morphed into. Alakoring's agenda somehow made it through the EWF heartlands to the Hendriki and led to the Adjustment Wars, which ended in first the Dragonkill and then a Sword-and-Helm reprise disaster. Then came Belintar and kick-started the re-population of Dragon Pass from the south, and Hwarin Dalthippa sending Arim to do so from the north. Ironhoof's domain ended with that. The treaty with Belintar at Centaur's Cross might have been the terminal date for the rules of his kingship, opening up Arim's way to Sorana Tor

Elementalism was one of the discoveries by the God Learners, found in a rawer form in the Theyalan traditions. The GLs refined the principle and applied it successfully to invade other places' myths, including Teshnos, Kralorela and Pamaltela. Ironically, they never applied this much to the West. Without the God Learner monomyth, Glorantha as an rpg-setting would be impossible to present. The Gloranthan Sourcebook is dense and abstract enough as such introductions go. But I agree, we have been using Cults of Prax (of all places in the world!) as the definition and ground work of the setting of Glorantha. Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha (reprinted and expanded in the Sourcebook) gave a more "global" perspective, along the God Learner systematic that was referred in Cults of Prax. Nowadays we finally receive the Dragon Pass perspective. I would love to see the Malkioni take on Glorantha in the revised (less Catholic Church) form that has been hinted at in the Guide, but unfortunately our two major sources on the Malkioni outside of the initial rewrites in the Guide are still following that "Church" model that led to the interesting, playable but non-canonical development of "The Glorious Book of Joy" and the draft of "Kingdom of the Flamesword" for HQ1 by Jamie Revell aka Ttrotsky, and to the at times fresh re-interpretations in the Mongoose Second Age line that regrettably failed to adhere even to that older canon of Revealed Mythologies, Middle Sea Empire, and the EWF stuff previously published e.g. in King of Sartar. I wonder how the West could be tackled best. Something similar to the Gloranthan Sourcebook, presenting a summary of Greg's western myths and stories, and a rules-free explanation of their religion might be a way, taking in the summaries of Revealed Mythologies and Missing Lands (which made an excellent use of the "Seshnelan Kings List" by annotating it). And only then a RQG book and possibly a HQG book providing rpg rules for that part of the setting. The East deserves a detail treatment of a similar order, too, but its mysticism is not that different from Lunar and Draconic developments, and was united by Sheng's experience. The Far East has two major playing fields with huge civilizations mapped out - Vormain, and the Andin Wars further east, both north of the immortal (and unavailable?) lands of Vithalash. Apparently the magic rules of RQG and HQG apply, but there are so many other cults and names that require explanations, and mysticism needs more attention, too. Pamaltela has at least four different human stories to tell - Umathela's conflict with Slon, Fonrit's resurgence of the Artmali, the Doraddi (and Kresht) epic against the Nargan, and whatever happens to the Thinobutan descendants along the northern coasts. Fonrit and Umathela might be told with the tools at hand, although a more systematic exploration of Gloranthan sorcery would be appreaciated.

The Grazer FHQ is a special case, true. But that might be due to the fact that she comes from a Pure Horse nation in the Hyaloring tradition. Sure, but if you look at the timing of the King of Dragon Pass contest, it occurs almost the moment Hon-eel usurps the Tarsh Earth rites (1490) and ends the Sorana Tor royal lineage there (or modifies it - pick your choice). Coincidence? It probably depends on your definition of the term slave. To me, that definition includes taking the human chattel to the market and selling them off like any other merchandize, which is something you don't do with serfs who are bound to their land. The owner may sell the land and the serfs along with that, but the owner may not pick a number of serfs and sell or gift them away at a whim. IMO the vendref clans are bound to their land. They may exchange daughters with other Vendref for maintenance of their exogamous marriage system - probably without interference by the owning Grazer clans if appropriate gifts/marriage taxes are given. Ownership of a Vendref clan (or several) is sort of a secondary herd to the Grazer clans holding that ownership, and holding that ownership probably is subject to being able to hold off other Grazer clans from that asset. No idea whether this is solved in a way analogous to the Dart Competitions in battles among the Grazers only, or whether taking stuff from the Vendref clan without retaliation bestows some form of ownership. Allowing some form of such warlike interaction certainly is part of the Grazer culture now they are less nomadic herders and more land holders with some sacred herding on the side. Lokamayadon: Lunarized Orlanthi, possibly. Neither Carmanians nor Dara Happans would care much for that, and the Carmanians have their own "liberated Orlanth" crackpots in form of "Invisible Orlanth" to experiment with. He apparently manages to subvert Yara Aranis, or to bring forth a local variation of Yara as the "six-armed goddess of Saird" in his fight with Sheng Seleris. "Temple of the Reaching <anything>" appears to me to create a portion of land that obeys a different magic than the rest. Yara Aranis created the Glowline to stabilize and then extend the Silver Shadow effect on Lunar Magic over a larger territory. (That leads into my own crackpot theory about the Silver Shadow around the Crater being identical to the Red Moon beyond the Crown Mountains, which happen to be the mirror of the Crater Walls. Mentioned a couple of times already...) Basically, one thing the Bright Empire, the EWF and the Lunar Empire inside the Glowline have in common is that inside their borders magic was different. Nysalor's "At the Edge of Light there is Always Shadow" may not have been an excuse for the very dirty way that his missionaries tried to force the Seshnegi into their fold but a realistic statement about the extent of his brightness. The EWF's dragon's dream faded out without much of a direct delineation, too. The SIlver Shadow in the first through third wanes may have been less abrupt in its change of the cyclical nature of Lunar magic, but then it looks as if the current organization into Satrapies was only started in the Fifth Wane in the course of re-organizing the Empire after Sheng's visitations. Argrath had sufficient folk with insight into the Lunar magics to learn that the Temples of the Reaching Moon had been an anti-Sheng measure, and he must somehow either re-created a sibling of Yara or established a truce with her that allowed her to use Storm rather than moon as her tool against her hated enemy Sheng and his nomad minions. In the Dragon Pass boardgame, Argrath has the exotic magical power that he works as an anti-Glowspot. I always assumed that this was a draconic cancellation of Lunar Magic, rather than the product of combining Nysalorean illumination with Storm powers. He and his magicians had certainly disrupted or destroyed enough Reaching Moon temples in their career - possibly to the point that he had a special task force of "Temple busters" that he could send to neutralize or destroy a local Reaching Moon temple when campaigning. The Reaching Storm temples might be a magical extension of that personal power of Argrath. We'll have to wait for a publication making a canonical statement on this power. So far, it hasn't surfaced, yet, as Argrath still has to go to Tarsh and interact with the Glowline. His upcoming wedding to the Grazer queen might bring that about, though, and if not that, then the conquest of Tarsh. Alakoring (who had been permanently retired by Tobosta Greenbow in 940, 305 years before that battle)- KoS hardcover p.82. If you read the expanded story of Castle Blue in the Sourcebook which introduces the character Darbeest (a human who was married to a princess of that castle) and his sons, it may have been the assault of a fleet of the dead destroying Meglardinth that caused that breach of the Compromise, rather than anything Teelo Estara did. (Although the Four Arrows of Light as the trigger for this was another event that stretched the boundaries of the Compromise, to say the least.) Or otherwise, an entire nation does a huge extraordinary rite with the same effect. There is a question whether the Skyburn of Erigia or the Moonburn of Rist were on one of the breach side of stretching the Compromise or barely not, and again when the Syndics slew the God of Silver Feet creating the Ban. The Dara Happans themselves make the distinction that Orlanth slew Murharzarm the (demigod) Emperor of the World (which was Dara Happa), and that Yelm disintegrated out of grief and shock. Effectively, the Sword of Death never touched the Sun. But then, Murharzarm probably was more than a demigod, he may well have been a crucial manifestation of Yelm (among several - the sun disk/globe/orb, and the golden Sky Dome, and possibly others). The orb remained in the sky after the deed, and was called Antirius. That's possibly not an Ernaldan trait, but one in common to the feathered priestesses of the horse nomads. The Phargentes in his old age did not come across as a slave of the FHQ. He certainly lost some form of power or magic to her or to the contest as a whole which was inherited by Tarkalor and FHQ3, though. Basically, entering that contest means that you and your supporters bid a sufficient amount of power - financial, magical, personal - into that contest. The winner(s) take it all, and more. Ironhoof was King of Dragon Pass through the Lady of the Wild, and Arim was King of Dragon Pass through Sorana Tor. Illaro became King of Tarsh through Sorana Tor, and so did his dynasty. IMO Hon-eel entered Tarsh Earth rites pssibly tied to Sorana Tor and usurped her role, separating her from the King of Dragon Pass role in 1490. The FHQ picked that up, and the preliminaries from which Sartar emerged as the contestant for the FHQ ended in 1492. The years 1493 and 1494 were the years of the contest between Sartar and the FHQ. CHDP tells us that Argrath marries the FHQ in 1628, meaning that the contest or at least preparatory quests by choice companions of his (hint: player characters) may start as early as 1626. But then CHDP has Inkarne, infant daughter of the Queen of Holay, as the bride of Argrath in 1634, too (prematurely bestowing Argrath with the title of "King of Dragon Pass and Saird", and sending the infant queen to the Kero Fin temple (presumably Shaker's Temple in Tarsh). Selecting the most powerful groom: isn't that the point of any marriage contest? The contest for the harvest queen in "Melisande's Hand" in Sun County (or Tales of the Reaching Moon #4, IIRC) has just that theme, and it probably is quite timeless. The concept of dry land, on a surface that used to be submerged and hence accessible to the sea for harvesting the magic/food there, was what ended the Blue Age and started the Green Age. The description of the strata in Snake Pipe Hollow makes it clear that the surface world was once covered by the Sea, and Snake Pipe Hollow was part of the remaining dry parts of Vingkot's kingdom during the great flood that made up the second sub-segment of the Storm Age, so the sea creature fossils had to go there at an earlier time. Hence my concept of the Earth Cube as covered in a "mother of pearl" surface of sea excretions whose layers are so huge that we regard them as ancient sediment. You write this weirdly from the Earth's perspective, when the ones having the beef is the Ocean. The Emperor touches everything in the world with the rays of the sun. Yelm is the poster boy culprit for the metoo movement. His light is capable of causing pregnancy, as proved by Hon-eel's quest by which she overcame the Most Reverend Mother of Horses (Sourcebook p.178). (That text introduces a strange new character: A wife of Aether? Only Ga/Gata comes to mind inside the Monomyth, but we don't know the Dara Happan stories about how or even whether Aether fathered Umatum. They and the Pentans may have other stories, untampered with by God Learners and hardly overwritten by the Theyalans before them. Metoo says so, too. A deity that can impregnate by just looking at a woman is fearsome in that regard. The Emperor wanted to possess Ernalda, too. That's why she was drudging away at his palace, bereft of her role as Queen of the (Surface) World. Whether she was a concubine or just a hostage put to work as a housemaid is immaterial. That's Oria, not Ernalda. Or rather, not the only appearance of Ernalda at this contest - take Esvenratha instead. Invert the nr, transform th to ld, and you have the name Esvernalda. "Esv" comes up in Esvuthil (Land of Thilla) and the name Esventheus. If you look at the mess Plentonius makes of other Theyalan transliterations, this one is well possible. (@Qizilbashwoman - I hope this is linguistically sound.) Ernalda never was a topic of contest between Orlanth and Yelm. Recognition as King, and the case against the killer/chainer of Umath was. Looking at what has been told about Dara Happan court protocol (mostly by MOB), I very much doubt that any petitioner was allowed to raise his voice in the presence of the Emperor, instead a court official would take the complaint statement and present/translate it to the Emperor. GRoY page 73, "Orlanth in GRoY", pretty much explains that absence. Unlike with the Theyalan myths, which we learn about in their post-monomyth form, the GRoY is a pre-God Learner and even pre-Theyalan Influence document. We haven't seen any comparable documents for the Theyalan side, although there ought to be fragments in the shelves of Lhankor Mhy libraries. Esrolia - Land of 10,000 Goddesses gives us a glimpse at pre-God Learner sources and names with the Harono and Kodig stories. No idea whether these are also pre-Theyalan. Heortling Mythology has the Coming of Hunger as the core Uraldan myth, but gives no other reason than "the two-legs discovered it". Acknowledgement of Hunger as a force is really a fundamental Green Age / End of Golden Age myth, reappearing over and over. Entekosiad has some of that from a proto-Lodril perspective. Both do, in less pleasant form than the Earth does. Earth's demands are at least as terrible, though. The Uralda myth is another view at the primeval butchering myth that e.g. the log walkers in Entekosiad have. Ernalda's and Uralda's logic in that myth is ice-cold: There are other such examples, one of my favorites is Genert's sacrifice of his followers that creates the Copper Sands in the Wastes. That's a different cycle of myths. Capital h Hunger in the dry lands is about the end of plenty to humans, whereas the Oceans have their myth about the loss of plenty as lands fell inexplicably dry. That loss left them with an appetite for something they couldn't reach (a different Green Age kind of moment), but not a welfare-threatening one. The Tom Sawyer feat of getting a fence painted... Yelmic Justice works on this principle, too. And the Gods War boardgame does provide an Earth Queen for the Chaos faction, too... in keeping with this mythology. Note that the Red Goddess with her "marrying cults into the religion" has the same mechanics to work on e.g. Pavis. And Ernalda is described as the one of the three sisters who is very much this force. Maran is the terrifying destructive force (but still a mother), and Esrola is the physical and nourishing aspect isolated. Thunder Rebels treats Esrola as an aspect of Ernalda, RQG might not. Yes. But then compare the Wedding Contest for Yelm. Orlanth is pretty unique in proclaiming judgment on himself and going into exile. Reminds me of Frederic II of Prussia and his glee at losing the court case against a miller - did wonders for his reputation as proponent of enlightened absolutism. You should add Saird, as per GRoY. Maniria and Prax/Genert's Garden are given as bonus in the Sourcebook, and the region might as well be called Tada's Realm. Not the symbol - the thing itself. The land, and the sovereignty thereof. Each of her maternal predecessors yielded that bunch of power and responsibility to the next generation - Gata to Asrelia, Asrelia to Ernalda. Each such generational passage weakened the thing itself but brought forth other aspects that were missing from the earlier, purer form, that's the nature of Devolution that the God Learners (and Zzabur before them) discerned in the universe of Glorantha. We have the highly unsympathic entity Imarja for that, too. Said people don't recognize the name, and don't look past the deities familiar to them. It takes enlightenment to doubt your immediate deity, or exposure to foreign ideas that lead to enlightenment. The Esrolians are big on Enlightenment, even though they followed the Only Old One after the Battle of Night and Day and they never trusted Palangio. They have Imarja as a secret identity beyond Ernalda - something the God Learners apparently missed, or failed to exploit. Asrelia introduced some personality to the job of Great Earth Goddess, but didn't get to go all the way (the Orlanthi have a myth about how Umath and Asrelia were destined for one another but how the Celestials prevented that from happening). Ernalda is the incarnation that has brought forth the personality. Because everywhere is the Surface World. The Orlanth Storm is everywhere, too, as is Daylight or Night's shadow. Only Water has a problem with ubiquity in the Surface World. "The game" - which one are you referring to here? I am certain that there is a mystical unity between Umath and Entekos. Then there is Aerlit of Seshnela, a gentle wind among the wild gales of the Vadrudi, ancestor to the Malkioni. In a way, Malkion is the storm god you are missing. As to the non-conservative sun god, the rebellion of Brightface in Entekosiad shows the Young God in a much different light, and some of this was retained by e.g. the Sankenites of Dawn Age Kostaddi and also by the horse warlords. Hierarchy sort of goes with Gloranthan and Solar civilization, but a sun barbarian shouldn't be impossible. None of these emerged victorious out of the earlier phases of the Gods War or as survivors/resurrectees of the Greater Darkness. At least not in a major role. The Doraddi civilization of Tishamto might satisfy your urge for a much less stratified solar-friendly society. Significantly, the sun wasn't in charge, though, and neither was fire (Balumbasta/Lodril), but Pamalt was, the Tada figure of the southern continent. Teshnos has Calyz, possibly the friendliest male fire deity you may be able to find anywhere in Glorantha. The God Learners were pretty much unable to identify him with any other fire emanation known to them, unlike for Solf (Lodril/Lodik/Ladaral), Somash (Yelm/Ehilm) and Zitro Argon (Dayzatar/Zrethus). (Of the Pelorian entities, Turos comes closest to Calyz.) Pelandan Idovanus is something like a "Great Yelm" with hints of the Invisible God. Powerless now, possibly since the ascension of Daxdarius and Natha to the Jernotian Celestial Court. You are aware that "supreme" invokes adjectives like "asshole", "trickster" or "hierarchical", and that it doesn't usually come in the plural? Surenslib's Suvaria (originally extending to Biselenslib's Henjarl and east of the Yolp mountains that sprang up about one third into her expanse from west to east to that region's ibis-headed wetland goddess) is possibly such a place. The EWF and the Lunar Empire made their alternate magical realities such objects of supreme desire. But then, Suvaria is a mix of dry land and water with a creation story for the universe of its own (and hard to reconcile with the Monomyth). The Malkioni acknowledge land goddesses among their ancestry, and probably have them as descendants of Empress Earth, the Erasanchula of Earth. Britha or Kala are not descended from Genner (Genert), and I think that neither is Seshna Likita, unlike Frona and Ralia, but a dry remnant of Danmalastan. The aldryami of Genertela (and since the Third Age, Jrustela) acknowledge Ernalda, but that might be a consequence of the Lightbringer Awakeners. The forests awakened from Winterwood might have had a separate entity that got straightened out during the Bright Empire. Errinoru's visit in the north may have aligned Pamaltela, or not. By that time, the God Learners had swallowed the Theyalan version hook, line and sinker and went on to promote that as the basis of their monomyth. They surely tampered with the mythic landscape of Umathela. They never had the chance to do so on Brithos, but they might have aligned Seshna with the Ernalda story. The Gods War gamed things out between numerous manifestations of these powers in different contexts. Then the Greater Darkness filtered out only those manifestations that had been strong enough prior to the Greater Darkness to be brought back from oblivion by Arachne Solara's Web. Glorantha is a post-apocalyptic setting with recurring cataclysms. That means it can afford to be lacking in some forms of expression, it has a backstory to explain those. If you don't want to ditch the entire concept of the Four Quarters of the World that collided in the Creation of Glorantha, then Ernalda may be the expression of the Earth in the northern quarter. The Jrusteli and possibly the Theyalans before them (including the Olodo) may have exported her to other parts (Seshnela, Teshnos, Kralorela, Jrustela, Umathela) that weren't originally parts of her quarter. Much of Pamaltela and the East may be unburdened by Ernalda. Everywhere else she appears to have been a success story since local forms were identified with her. The simplification of local expressions is part of the History of Glorantha within Time. Usually we are presented with the expressions at the end of the Third Age, as in the Guide, but occasionally older stories shine through, as in GRoY, Revealed Mythologies, Esrolia - Land of 10K Goddesses. You will be hard put to find any Orlanthi documents untainted by the Theyalan missionaries, and the Esrolian lore went into the Theyalan canon, too. Peloria and Pent were less infiltrated by Theyalan stories, or immunized by the arrogance of the Dara Happans, which may be why there were older stories left to be found by Valare Addi.

It is about rulership in the Middle Air/Middle Sky (two names for the same region), which used to be Orlanth's Domain but was invaded by the Red Moon in 1247. And to boot, she brought Chaos into the realm which Orlanth had successfully cleared of Chaos in the Gods War. Orlanth cannot yield the Middle Sky to the Moon, and the Moon cannot afford to leave the Middle Air to Orlanth. (And neither has the creative power to push the sky dome even further away...) The "kill all Lunars on sight" craze after the Dragonrise has ebbed down, now, and Sartar has always been a thoroughfare for trade, so foreigners visiting isn't that unusual. As long as the character has no manifest Chaos traits and has pledged to an Orlanthi of sufficient rank to obey the laws of hospitality and all that, even a Lunar cultist may be able to move through Sartar without having to fear for their life every second. A person of sufficient rank and ransom might be released for ransom. And possibly bringing/buying back kin of the captors who had been sent to the Heartlands in chains, assuming that they are still alive. If you get someone sufficiently powerful to grant you his protection and to stand up for your actions, you should be fine. Unless that guarantor has just died in a battle... Everybody will assume that a visiting Imperial citizen is there to spy or to assassinate someone - happened before. Coming in disguise might lend a lot more credence to this suspicion.

This isn't limited to the first two elements. The first generation of all the Srvuali (pure elemental pantheons) are special in their multiplication. Earth goddesses are parthenogenic, and Aether spawned the three sons Dayzatar, Arraz and Lodril and placed them beneath/inside his hemisphere. Umath is the odd elemental out in the Celestial Court, born from sex between two elements, first of the Burtae. (First in the sense of his importance and power rather than in the sense of being the prototype - look e.g. at Styx.) Unless this (nice) myth has been scrapped, Thunder Rebels names a dozen handmaidens of Ernalda and their Lowfire husbands (brothers of Mahome) that made up a good portion of the household Ernalda brought home from the court of the Evil Emperor. If you follow the empirical analysis performed by the God Learners, the land goddesses listed on page 3 of the Sourcebook are of a different quality than Ernalda (or her daughters/nieces serving as local aspects of the land). The God Learners appreciate her parthenogenic descent as superior to the fathered cousins like Seshna and Frona. Even though many of the Land Goddesses may qualify as Srvuali (Kero Fin for instance doesn't), Ernalda is from the pure self-replicating strain of Empress Earth. Ernalda is the only actively fertile goddess from the pure Srvuali strain from Empress Earth, the Erasanchula of Female Earth, in the God Learner monomyth terminology. That sets her apart. Oria's and Dendara's ancestry is similar, but so full of names no God Learner ever had to parse that they haven't been covered systematically. The God Learners and their classifications tend to go more and more wrong the more aboriginal the myths are they encounter. They failed to parse the Eastern pantheons, or mislabeled them (in Eest=Teshnos and Kralorela) base on their false but ideologically founded premises. This doesn't quite apply to the greater gods, though.

That sounds more like an Earth goddess than a Water goddes to me, or did I misunderstand something? I know the water gods are pretty hostile to pretty much everything not in the water (possibly excluding Heler) and was curious if there were more (other than the occasional river godthat has adopted the people living along said god's river). Both Biselenslib and Surensliba are the goddesses of wetlands, amphibious terrain that embodies both Earth and Water. Neither are elemental goddesses, although both have sovereign claims to their bi-elemental territory. Both are fertility goddesses and nourishers, and protectresses, if hungry and occasionally vengeful ones (see the Dorkath rites). With their wading bird aspects, these goddesses are sky entities, too. What they aren't is deities of Darkness or Storm. Sea brings an additional level of fluidity, while the first act of Darkness was to solidify reality. Darkness doesn't worry much about shape, but cares a lot about its roles. I have no idea how gendered Himile and Dehore, the brothers of Subere, are. None of that primal trio offers much in terms of a family life. Kyger Litor on the other hand is an entity of parthenogenic birthing, as is her daughter Korasting. The rest of her offspring mate normally, as per the rules of the Man Rune. Seas multiply by mingling their essences and producing something new. Most birthing falls on Triolina and her offspring, and on Varchulanga in the Depths, but lots of procreation goes on between seas, rivers etc. Dendara has some complex/complicated mythology hidden between even more complex ancient mythology in the Entekosiad. Her main role is that of the celestial mother of the Planetary Sons (including the female or hermaphrodite ones). She ascended from below, other than her beloved husband, by attaining and maintaining purity. I don't see her as wielding the powers of Earth, although she has a wide set of wifely powers that overlaps significantly with Ernalda's set of wifely attributes. Wife and mother and comforter of the powerful, those are her attributes in Dara Happan urban nobility. With the mother role including the strife for the betterment of her sons, i.e. "soft" politicking. Which I concider a very good point. Not to mention that Solar panthen to my knowledge don't (unlike the Storm pantheon) have a big thing about joining with the Earth patheon which make it even odder to have Dendara be an Earth goddes. Lodril is the typical male god of Dara Happa, and he is all about joining with the Earth, in sex or work. Yelm's roles is to stand above all that and to oversee it, and Dendara has risen to support him in that. Ernalda subsumes a great many of lesser wifely deities. Thunder Rebels presented Mahome as an aspect of Ernalda the Housewife (Allmother), an over-emphasized role in the Hero Wars era, but still a real one. Hearthmistress is a very real role shared by Ernalda and Mahome, and it doesn't make sense rules-wise to have every hearthmistress initiate to both Ernalda and Mahome as per standard RQG rules, does it? Really? Really. 6 out of 7 Orlanthi males worship Orlanth not because he is the Storm King, but because he is the everyman - warrior, farmer, leader of friends, and magician. There is no separate cult for Orlanthi nobility, only the Rex cult for kings that gives the King power over the priests of Orlanth. (Given that most of the Orlanthi aren't priests, that is a very limited authority, even though those priests hold a lot of magical power.) Lodril is both the normal worker (the Ten Sons and Servants) and the foreman. In Pelanda, Turos is even the ruling god and the culture-giver, with Idovanus (their variation on Yelm) more in the role of a celestial advisor. Yelm is the top administrator, but anything productive or effective comes from Lodril (when he isn't slacking off). Orlanth's idea of administration is to give precious metal broken from rings to proven companions and to receive their boasts as their application to do a task. For all the other stuff (other than sitting in judgement) he has a wife and a scribe. The Judgement aspect is held by Yelm. The warrior aspect is weak in either Yelm or Lodril as per Dara Happan expression. Wouldn't have expected that. At the same time I feel like I should have guessed what with Dara Happan stratification. The Guide section on Pelorian society says so quite explicitely. There appear to be two layers of Yelmic administrative families - highest nobility, and middling overseers and priests (the Enverinus priesthood) as a more pedestrian form of Yelm. Below that come the Buserian scribes. Subservient - yes. She is the Queen of the Earth Cube, after all. Lesser extensions - yes and no. The land goddesses are not parthenogenic births like the major earth deities (Asrelia and TKT, Ernalda, Esrola and Maran, Babeester and (half of the time) Voria), but have the Earth King as their father. Ernalda's undiluted claim outweights theirs. Entekos, not Dendara. Entekos is more than Dendara, even though they share a (celestial) body. There are two male storm gods in the East who are exceptions, too - Kahar, who studied Stillness under Nenduren to win the hand of Harantara, and Veldru the defender storm who fights to hold off the World Hurricane. There aren't that many named air goddesses in all of Glorantha. Vinga (aka female Orlanth), Brastalos (dauhter of Umath? - goddess of the doldrums in the eye of the World Hurricane), Iphara (Vadrus' daughter of the murder fog), Molanni (Vadrus' daughter of still air, mistress of the evil emperor and mother of Daga the demon of drought), Entekos (Pelorian goddess of the Middle Air), Keraun (Pamaltelan bringer of the monsoon). Yes, the Kralori have little fondness towards storm (whose main manifestations are the "East Stng Wind" aka Storm Bull storm to their west and the "North Death Wind" from the winter wastes, aka Humakt). The entire eastern civilization is Solar in nature, with variations in the details. Kralorela was solar before it became solar and draconic. Not quite, IMO. The ocean myths (last published in Tales of the Reaching Moon #10 and The Missing Lands) have a name for the Earth Cube: Bab, the food goddess. The oceans welcomed its formation in their midst, and they took nourishment from all six surfaces of the cube while it remained submerged, creating layers of sediment/mother of pearl on it. Then Earth rose above the surface, and only five of their customary six sides of nourishment remained available. To rectify this, Sea pushed to recover that food. Hence rivers, tidal waves, and floods. Umath's birth helped, as did Heler's predicament of separation from the Ocean. Sky River Titan's self-sacrifice completed the cycle. Basically, earth used to be the Ocean's treasure alone, and it isn't any more. The river gods and the coastal water entities have human worshipers who take most of their living out of the water, and the rice farmers have aquaculture or some "fishing" on the side, too. There is probably a dozen of different cultivars of rice in Glorantha - the Dara Happans alone know several kinds. The Helerings were a great power of their own before they remained as powerful as part of the Vingkotlings, at least until the onset of the Greater Darkness. The Banthites were a naval culture that ran afoul of the Waertagi (another naval culture). The Diroti and Sofali suffered from predations of the Sky, leading to the extinction of the western two tribes of the Sofali (although the ancestress of the northwestern Sofali still fulfilled her pledge to pay back the favor of Orlanth fighting off the Seabird Army and saving her Diroti folk when she carried him to Luathela). The Artmali had a naval culture. The surviving cultures in the East became great sailors out of necessity. The Safelstrans are worshipers of their lake goddess and the rivers, and profit greatly from that. Peloria survives because of irrigation - without that, the Pelorian bowl would be a fairly dry steppe or (if the Aldryami get their way) a rather hardy forest (like Erigia used to be before the Char-un burned it down). Lodril is one of the part time husbands of the rivers. And it is because of irrigation that their culture has a need of overseers and bureaucrats in the first place.

Capital D Death was new, and while it had changed Grandfather Mortal forever, nobody thought that the mightiest of the gods might be subject to it - not until Orlanth slew the Emperor. Even Orlanth was shocked (he had not been a witness to Grandfather Mortal's death), and probably repeated Humakt's words "uhm, was it supposed to do THAT?" (and possibly also "where am I going to get that wergild?"). Orlanth was thoroughly untrained in anything the Vadrudi host couldn't teach. Ernalda changed that... Ernalda feeds the world. What more gifting do you demand? The Orlanthi phrase that somewhat as "she is level-headed, patient, and plans and plots ahead." The Orlanthi value that side of their Queen of Gods. There is a reason that Orlanth has a diplomat, while Ernalda is her own. The "Making of the Storm Tribe" myth shows Ernalda excelling at double dealings. Enticing the Dark Tribe to raid the assembled Storm folk is simply badass assholery. You can trust a queen like that to deal with foes.

The partnership between Tarkalor and FHQ 3 (his first degree cousin) appears to have been a rather co-equal relationship, with Tarkalor being the younger partner but of quite heroic stature. Moirades doesn't quite strike me as the dominant partner of his Kingship of Dragon Pass, either. How Argrath's wedding is going to turn out might depend on the actions of his companions - blame the player characters. That would be equal to refusing her power of sovereignty. Great power, great responsibility... The bride usually makes impossible demands that are then fulfilled by the heroic suitor(s). FHQ 5 (of Moirades) set an impossibly high bride price. Moirades overpaid, hence he remained eligible. He also brought a song-bird back to the land which had been absent for ages. It isn't clear what kind of challenges Tarkalor had to overcome. In the end, the King of Dragon Pass pledges his life, and usually pays with it somehow, too. The FHQ that Argrath is going to marry is going to be quite powerful, but won't outshine Argrath. The next (or the Queen of Saird), Inkarne, is going to outshine the Argrath in future memory. No - the gods aren't an extraction and rescue service. Calling upon their regular (special) Rune Magic is much more helpful to establish or strengthen their influence in the Middle World. So are long time blessings received as the reward for heroquesting. There is one myth about the reconciliation, against multiple myths about confrontation. And Orlanth has not made peace with Jagrekriand, the slayer/crippler of his father Umath. Happens all the time, yes. Look at Tatius... Hence the cycles of cataclysmic conflicts. The Hero Wars are coming. Orlanth didn't attack the sun, he attacked the Evil Emperor. According to the Dara Happans, the sun disintegrated from grief over the loss of the Emperor Murharzarm. And indeed, for most of the Storm Age the Cold Sun remained in the Sky. (Seemingly there wasn't a day/night cycle in that Age, either.) It took a number of further defeats for the remaining sun to dim away, like the Hill of Gold conflicts, and possibly the Dara Happan Dome against the Ice. Murharzarm the Emperor doesn't get resurrected at the Dawn, only the shackled/harnessed sun. Orlanth isn't alone in killing the day star. Telmor ate the sun, according to the Hykimi myths of western Genertela. Zorak Zoran felled Flamal's Tree, plunging the (lesser) sun resting atop of it into Hell. Killing was brand-new. Grandfather Mortal had been killed by the new power of Death that didn't allow the effect being undone as the next (day) cycle starts, but that wasn't commonly known yet, or treated like the POTUS treats climate change. "Fake News!" The Emperor had the gall to treat Ernalda as a lesser concubine. The spurned woman is a terror to behold, and that mythic theme re-appears, e.g. in the Sword and Helm Saga, or in the finale of the Adjustment Wars at the start of the Third Age. In the Sword and Helm Saga the Queen of Nochet chose to abandon the heroic defender against Chaos. Sure, he was an asshole. But he may have been married to a shrew. One of the roles of Ernalda is the Femme Fatale. To love her/be married to her is to die, or to go to Hell. (Orlanth did the latter, successfully.) The Devastation of the Vent toppled the majority of buildings in Esrolia, with all the human drama involved with such earthquakes. These buildings included dams of reservoirs. While this isn't stated, even the dam that creates the lake around the Necropolis in Esrolia may have been damaged, with unfettered Dead roaming around until the damage was repaired.

There is no such thing as a satisfying elevator pitch on the Lunar Way, the best such a short form can be is a teaser. I'm sure others will provide more of that. The Lunar Way revolves around Sedenya, the greater Goddess of the Moon, and her incarnations/manifestations throughout Godtime and Time. Sedenya was killed in the Storm Age, and splinters of her were killed at different occasions. There are numerous names tossed into the mix, and there are other moons which don't contribute that directly to the cult of the Red Moon Goddess - primarily the Blue Moon of Annilla and Veldara, a celestial body that rose in the Storm Age and crashed down in the Storm Age, but has a remaining spiritual body that continues to rise outside of the Sky Dome, attracting the Tides to rise slowly before it reaches Pole Star and plummets down Magasta's Pool. The Lunar Way of Sedenya (and) the Red Goddess is a mystical way, based on the principles of Illlumination first brought by Rashoran, then implemented in the Bright Empire in the Dawn Age, and promoted by numerous other teachers and examples throughout history and prehistory. It manifests things beyond reality, in a way that is both temporary and timeless. Madness is sacred to the Lunar Way, and the Lunar Way spreads madness both as a tool towards Illumination and as a means to incapacitate foes. Balance is another main tenet of the Lunar Way. This includes avenging aspects and the demand for sacrifices. Reflection - both optical and philosophical - is the third of the tenets of the Lunar Way. All three are embodied by the Moon rune. The moons are celestial bodies, and the original Sedenya is also named a "False Sun Goddess" by the Yelmites who like to rewrite Godtime that Yelm Brightface was the first and only sun in the sky. (He wasn't, but things are only vaguely remembered, as told in unlikely places in the pre-Solar myths of Entekosiad). Lesser suns, planets and moons are often the same kind of body. If you want to enroll on an online course on Lunar theology, philosophy and ideology, you will have to go through some required reading. The Cult of the Seven Mothers in RQ2 Cults of Prax (also reprinted in Cults Compendium) was the first concrete information on how the Red Goddess affects individuals. She was first presented in the boardgame White Bear and Red Moon, which was re-published as Dragon Pass (by Chaosium, and then by Avalon Hill), which also bears quite a bit of useful facts better explained elsewhere, but those are our earliest documents, and research history often demands that one reads those. The History of the Lunar Wanes in the Sourcebook tells the story of the Goddess and the Lunar Empire and provides valuable insights. The Zero Wane history is most important for the theology as it was in those 27 years that things happened which shaped how the Red Goddess manifested in the world. Another IMO crucial source is Greg's text "The Lives of Sedenya", published in the Online zine Rule One. Reading up on the Red Moon and the Lunar Empire in the Guide won't hurt, either, and the Moonson entry in "The Fortunate Succession" is another important text you should have read.

The best write-up of Takenegi probably is in The Fortunate Succession. The original Moonson died in the Battle at Castle Blue. The Red Goddess brought him back, and made him her immortal emperor. His powers are way beyond what a single mortal body could confine, and it is carried by his "chorus" on the moon, the Egi - a set of immortals who carry part of Moonson's burden. They are the Egi, and Takenegi was a projection of these (with the original Moonson one of the Egi, I believe). When Sheng snuffed Takenegi for good, so that the mask of Magnificus had to replace him, some of the Egi had expired, too, and replacements were required. IMO one of the replacements was the former body of Magnificus. The body of Takenegi could no longer be manifested. A new mask of Moonson appears out of necessity, choosing a suitable candidate (knowing the Lunar nobility, in all likelihood a direct descendant from Moonson through at least one line, quite likely more than one). The final death of a mask causes a change in the Egi. Not necessarily the death of a previous contributor, but certainly a change in status. The Red Moon is an unusual Otherworld, as it is subject to TIme, and adjacent to the lands under the Glowline, IMO. It is an ageless realm nontetheless, again IMO. A new mask of Moonson is not yet automatically the Red Emperor - he needs to undergo the Ten Tests and probably visit bodily on the moon to take on that role. He will be regarded as acting emperor if he provides sufficient proof of his moonson-ness, though. When Moirades "inspired" Jar-eel with Phargentes (his son, not his father), he advanced to the moon and joined a state of being that I want to call the waiting room for future Egi. I am certain that when Phargentes finally advances to Emperorhood, Moirades will be one of his Egi. I also want Moirades the Egi-candidate to make a visit to Lunar Tarsh on the eve of its fall, but that might be just wishful thinking. Pharandros probably gets visitations by his late dad on a regular basis - no wonder he has little tolerance for an overbearing subject like Fazzur. I think the wider issue here is who gets to while his afterlife or ascended life away on the Red Moon, what makes folk eligible, how crowed is the moon? Illumination probably is a minimal prerequisite. It might be required to be able to step on the moon at all (or might be forced upon you when making that "small step for a man"). The Full Moon Corps is made up of Lunar demigods, quite likely heroic or extraordinarily pious/inspired followers of the Red Goddess in her many wars and conflicts to establish herself, and expanding as the Wanes went on. They seem to me like something like the Terracotta army, manifesting corporeally in the Middle World while simultaneously living on on the moon. Pluripresence (as per the enigmatic texts in Arcane Lore) may be a weird concept, but I think it is behind this phenomenon, and behind Moonson, too. Belintar has built a similar set of contributors to his mortal form with the winners of the Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death. While the mortal body changes with each incarnation, the personalities of the previous bodies (dominantly including the original) remain, whle the donors of the body enjoy a timeless existence in a domain of their own making in the special Otherworld that also serves as the tournament grounds. These winners sit there, apparently unchallenged (yet - or up to Jar-eel's intervention), and their continued existence and their memories from joining Belintar might be something to quest to if one went about to re-awaken the Lord of the Harshax.

My understanding is that the gods need the agency of mortals (or immortal or demigod Inner World denizens) to have agency. Quite often, they have avatars or heroes doing stuff in their name, giving them the ability to change stuff. Rune Magic is the least of this, heroforming (or stuff like Daka Fal's "Incarnate Ancestor") is a step further. Some deities have actual avatars running around. The Red Goddess, who isn't well known for adhering to the Compromise, has three - Red Emperor, Great Sister, and Jar-eel. Good point. They accumulate the stuff that is carried to them until that point of linear Time, so their knowledge is not static, but increases as Time proceeds. And they usually have an area or sphere of influence in the Middle World. Orlanth has all Air, Mahome has the Hearthfires, Yelm has wherever sunlight touches, etc. When asked a question via Divination, the deity can consult the stored memory and activate the sensors of their domain (at that point in Time) to sense for the object of the question. Divine Intervention is obviously triggered by the cultist, and also powered by the cultist. It does give the deity agency - within limits - to lend a helping hand to that cultist. The limits (imposed by the Compromise, I think) are that there must be no direct hostile interaction with the rest of the world. No. Accumulating memory with Time is something that happens to deities, although from their perspective it might be like pages of the book or scenes of the movie they haven't seen yet, and someone else (Time) holds the control and steps the progress. None for deities. For the mortals, there is free will - but fate will still provide the framing parameters, otherwise prophecy wouldn't work. (Now, how exactly prophecy works is yet another, deeper can of worms.) Getting reborn into the world or possessing a denizen of that realm is an acceptable way. Jar-eel is (yet) fully Compromise-compatible. Rathor doesn't have that much agency now Harrek has bound him into his fur, but the berserk's actions aren't exactly against Rathor's nature. That's the case if you don't invest into the deity but treat it like the God Learners did - observing, following the rotes, rewriting the story. That is very different from becoming the deity with all your (and its) passions, as you do in a theist heroquest. The fun stuff about entering a heroquest is that its course is not predictable and completely scripted. And it will change the story of the protagonists and antagonists in that quest, somewhat. Again, it is the infusion of a mortal's Free Will that makes things uncertain and different. It's the stuff that's coming out of the Chaosium.

The TV series is likely to result in a very different kind of rpg than Stormbringer or Elric!, IMO. I haven't heard a single "Arioch" in that trailer.

Welcome back, then, Daine!

The Gloranthan phallus pre--existed all the elements with the possible exception of Darkness, and it was called the Spike. Earth slid up the shaft to emerge from the Sea into dry space (according to Sea myths) like a pole dancer. She might have been already quite pregnant at the time, releasing Aether to provide something sitting on that dry side. Is fire necessary to deposit a sacrifice, or was the method of sacrifice the creation of hoards? Sowing the good stuff to reap way more of the same... I think that Genert is the Sator, placing the seeds. No, the intrepid Kachasti/Kachisti on their Speaking Tour contacted the lands of Genner a lot earlier, and carried the tales they were told back to the blue man. The appearance of King Drona in Fronela makes me wonder whether Froalar's exodus was just a repeat of the division between Drona(r) and Dromal, twin sons of Kala. The arrival of Malkion the Founder can be dated in the Monomyth as post-Birth of Umath. Still already under the sun, but long before the Bright Empire of the Dawn Age.

Caladra may be Ga-Lodril. Lodril is known in the west as Ladaral (or "Laddie"). "a" to "o" is certainly within the range of normal dialect changes in British English. (And George Bernard Shaw said what there is to be said about phonetics in the English language...)

But then, it doesn't appear like agriculture existed in Dara Happa prior to the coming of the Oslir as a consequence (among others) of Umath pushing his parents apart, lifting off the sky dome while pushing the earth cube into the sea. HIs failure using military force is probably a case of "even Worf was beaten", but his wetlands marriage gives him that role afterwards. The Theyalan pronunciation for Shargash is "Jagrekriand". (Much like that of Lodril is "Veskarthan".) The first time I saw the name "Jagrekriad" was in King of Sartar. If his demons are the Shadzorings, then Shadzor would be the name of the lord of those demons. Alkor may have undergone a quite traumatic experience, possibly a sexual one with him in the non-male role. Or he may have been flensed, and only received his red skin from that trauma. Eiritha is not your usual "favorite crop" land goddess as those goddesses mentioned in the Sourcebook (p.3 - Seshna, Frona, Ralia, Pelora, Teshna, Kralora). Genert's Garden appears to be Ernalda's body, much like Saird and Maniria. (No idea wheree that leaves Balazar and the Elder Wilds, though.) Her Earth Rites are kin to those of Ernalda and grant some mutual access. Eiritha has Hykim/Mikyh as one parent, and Genert/Ernalda as the other. Pick your couple. The majority of the Beast Riders trace their founders as sons of the Storm Bull and Eiritha. This doesn't make them storm people any more than the Malkioni (after all, Malkion is the son of Aerlit, a storm god, too.) The Orlanthi peoples are the product of the Theyalan salvage of myths from the patchwork that Arachne Solara's Web had created as the World of Time. The Lightbringer missionaries went out not just to instrluct the other survivors of the Greater Darkness in how they could contact the gods within Time, but also to collect those fragments of stories that their own ancestors had forgotten, patching together pieces that looked sufficiently as a fit. The Theyalan magic (aka rune magic) then reinforced those patchwork stories as the main way the Middle World interfaced with the Hero Planes, and established the consensus for that place. The Jrusteli myth researchers stole those methods and consensus, and then applied their Logic to the Theyalan patchwork, giving it a sequence that the original Theyalan patchwork may have lacked.

Dendara is the sister of Oria, which gives her earth ancestry. Much like Ernalda has been portrayed occasionally as the spiritual side of the earth, with Esrola as the physical aspects and Maran as the destructive ones. This Oria-Dendara relationship is similar, which makes the presentation of Dendara as an alternative to Ernalda in RQ3 somewhat sensible. The goddess of the Hearthfire is Mahome, a lowfire daughter of Lodril/Veskarthan, and in Thunder Rebels an adoptive subcult of Ernalda. When it comes to Orlanthi, six out of seven women worship Ernalda. Among other Theyalan humans, that number may be lower, or even zero (e.g. the Ingareens). Yelmalio is mostly an Orlanthi cult, and has been such since the Second Age (though maybe known by a different name). Their women may (6 out of 7 again) worship Ernalda or Dendara, depending on how Dara Happa-phile they are. Full Lunars don't worship deities by gender. The non-Lunars in the empire and the provinces do, though. But then Pelorians sually (I guess another 6 out of 7) don't initiate to a single cult, but support their holy folk of acceptable cults as a mass of lay members, having the holy folk cast their blessings for them. Or they might initiate to Daka Fal. But their holy folk worship womens' deities like Oria, Dendara, Surensliba, Biselenslib, Thilla, Uleria, Naveria, ... and of course people worship the Lunar deities on the side without being initiated or illuminated, like the Emperor. With the prevalence of the Seven Mothers in the provinces, I expect Lunarized Orlanthi to have less than six out of seven women worshiping Ernalda. Hon-eel is a good replacement in the maize-growing lands - both Lunar and Earth. So yes, a vast majority of female initiates is initiated to the Cult of Ernalda. Pelorian deities have a lot less initiates, even though their lay membership may vastly outdo anything the Heortlings can muster. With the Malkioni west intersecting with the Theyalan furthest expansion, Ernalda is the go-to deity for female initiates, with land goddesses an alternative, or an alternative name for the same cult. Orlanth and Lodril, rather, with local forms like Waha or Votank occasionally outdoing the big ones. The Bull god (when not being Orlanth) might rival Lodril in numbers of initiates. The greatest number of Yelm worshipers is among the horse nomads. In Dara Happa and neighboring lands, only the nobility initates to Yelm. Eiritha is an excuse for a land goddess. Land goddesses are sometimes interpreted as Ernalda, sometimes as something separate. The God Learners dared to tamper with land goddesses, but they didn't mess with Ernalda. The Sourcebook (p3, 6) gives Ernalda the lands of Maniria and Saird and Genert's Garden, plus all the drowned places towards the Spike. Ralia's land is separate, even though the Green Goddess of Ralios is Ernalda in all but name. Pelora is separate, too. Thanks, and sorry for being not as enlightening. I dozed off before sending that... Entekos as the goddess of measuredly moving or still Air in the center of the storm isn't that weird, is it? The contradiction is there, and it is known - Brastalos is another manifestation of the Eye of the Hurricane, and so is Molanni. Definitely on the level of "an aspect of" or "another mask of", with added Kralori baggage (different names for the emperor in Kralorela, draconic features, mysticism....) One thing about Dendara in Dara Happa is that she is the cult for noblewomen, with other women left to Oria or some of the -eria goddesses. None comes to mind that isn't another form or son of Lodril. At least not on the Surface World - if you wish to develop an underworld ecology, such deities are likely to crop up. I haven't seen the runes of Togaro. The boiling ocean might have Heat, but then its main rune is Water. The Brass Mostali handle Heat, not Light (although molten copper emits white glow, and molten bronze still a bright orange). They generate heat by flame or by magic. Most deities with a heat characteristic haven't lost the light of the flame. When Fire is stolen, it is usually the full amount of fire. There are only three deities who have Cold without Darkness - Himile, the origin of that power, Valind, his ally, and Inora, Himile's daughter by Kero Fin. Shadow is a little more widespread - Argan Argar has it (and thus the Only Old One), his mother Xentha has it, and Moorgarki held onto it. Light without Heat or Flame is fairly common among the lesser celestials. I have speculated on Sea having two similar sub-forms, with Heler representing the salt-less variant of the isotonic water, and Nelat's brine the other, caustic end. Earth only has Dark Earth as its variety/internal antithesis. The Copper Sands or the Dead Place might represent the opposite. Storm is too young to have differentiate thus, unless you want to philosophize on Still Air. Moon has phases and underwent a color cycle. On the whole, I don't think that elemental sub-runes have much to say in terms of temperament and personality beyond those of the parent elements.

Not quite. A colleague belt buckles salesman of Greg who knew about his stories and the boardgame idea happened to be at the printer when the first print run ever of D&D was delivered, and he bought a copy for Greg. Apparently Greg loved the concept and loathed the execution (i.e. how the rules were written).